| Clearly, at least one of the households in each conquered town had to decide that serving the Aztec bureaucracy was the best strategy. The members of this household became the local officials. They had the right to wear and use unique clothing and household goods that came from the city, possessions they received as gifts from political overlords. In return for this local distinction, they had to provide the information that made the tribute system feasible: head counts of households, estimates of possible production, and tallies of goods produced in response to tribute requests.
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